Dan Murrell
Dan Murrell is a film critic, producer, writer, presenter, editor, and key contributor to Screen Junkies. He is a writer and producer on the four-time-Emmy nominated comedy series Honest Trailers. As a producer of Honest Trailers, Dan has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Short Form Variety Series" four times, in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Dan is a member of both the Broadcast Film Critics' Association (BFCA) and the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society (LAOFCS). Screen Junkies Dan joined Screen Junkies in 2012, and was initially employed as the editor for The Screen Junkies Show.'' Dan's first involvement with the ''Honest Trailers series was doing an uncredited editing pass on the extremely early episode Avatar. ''Dan's first credit on the Honest Trailers series is as editor on ''Skyfall . His first writing credit on the series was Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, however, Dan often pitched jokes prior to this. In total, Dan has contributed to over 300 episodes of Honest Trailers. The Honest Trailer for Star Trek: The Next Generation was primarily Dan's work, which is why he is the first-credited writer on that particular episode. Similarly, the Doctor Who (Classic) Honest Trailer was written entirely by Dan. In addition to his work on Honest Trailers, Dan has contributed to many other Screen Junkies shows, including Honest Trailers Commentaries, and the daily talk show, SJU, on which he appears almost daily. Dan is known for his deep knowledge of film trivia and for his impersonations, including a Mark Wahlberg so impressive it will have you exclaiming "What? No!" 'He is also known for occasionally get very worked up about certain topics, which are called "Dan rants." Dan occasionally satirizes himself by comically "ranting" about absurd topics, such as the technical definition of "Upstate New York." Dan also hosts the weekly box office show 'Charting With Dan in which he repeatedly talks about a film's legs while Roth Cornet encourages viewers to take shots of apple juice. Dan also makes occasional special features for Screen Junkies. Dan's special features are usually "deep dives" into aspects of film, such as a video explaining how Rotten Tomatoes works, and Side By Side - comparison of the film techniques used in Jurassic World and Jurassic Park'. Dan also narrates the series Cram It! in which he humorously summarizes the previous installments of a film franchise. Previously, Dan hosted the shows Dan's Labyrinth and ''Summer Movie Report on '''Screen Junkies Plus.'' Dan was also co-creator and writer on the original scripted sitcom' Interns of F.I.E.L.D. Dan appeared in every episode of the comedy/variety show '''Flick Bait, and made the Honest Trailer for Flick Bait.' '''Dan has appeared regularly on 'Movie Fights' since its inception in 2014, both as contestant and fact-checker. Movie Fights Dan has appeared as a contestant on 'Movie Fights' more times than any other person. He is the current champion and is widely regarded as the strongest fighter in the history of the game. Dan uses a systematic, logical approach in his arguments and methodically knocks down every counter-argument made against him. In the past, Dan was known for occasionally descending into angry outbursts on ''Movie Fights, most notably during the episode "What Star Wars Character Would Win the Hunger Games" (November 21, 2015) when he passionately defended the '90s TV show Seaquest. In recent years, Dan has pulled back significantly from this style aggressive of debate, mostly because in 2016 he received death threats after his combative appearance on the Movie Fights episode "Suicide Squad: Rotten or Fresh." Since Movie Fights was retooled in 2018, it is no longer such a conducive environment for hostility. Sketch characters , Dan appeared as "Hollywood," a heavily-cocained studio-type who is full of terrible ideas.]] Dan has developed a variety of sketch characters whilst at Screen Junkies, including Scoops McGee, Hollywood and The SEO CEO. These characters were originally performed for Screen Junkies comedy/variety/sketch show 'Flick Bait'.'' Scoops McGee also appeared briefly at the 2018 Movie Fights Extravaganza, and at the 2019 Comic Con edition of Movie Fights. * Scoops McGee is a parody of a trashy film journalist. Dan uses an "old-fashioned" style of speech to mimic a bygone era of Hollywood. * Hollywood is the corporeal embodiment of Hollywood itself. The character is parody of an artistically-bankrupt "cool" studio exec. He doesn't care if movie ideas are any good, only if they have marketing potential. * The SEO CEO is a parody of an algorithm-obsessed exec who makes content decisions based purely on views, watch time, key words and other metrics. His motto is "ABC: Always Be Clicky." 2018 Gotti Twitter Feud In 2018, Dan Murrell got into a brief Twitter feud with the Gotti film account when he tweeted that the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes had been manipulated by a suspiciously high number of new accounts. Dan even briefly appeared on the "Today" show to discuss the feud. Read more: * Is ‘Gotti’ Manipulating Rotten Tomatoes to Make Its User Score Higher? Suspicious Fan Reviews Spark Debate '- IndieWire article * 'John Travolta's Gotti gets out-of-whack Rotten Tomatoes score '- Cnet article Other work Dan has worked in various jobs, including numerous jobs as production assistant and personal assistant. One of Dan's first jobs in L.A. was working for a company that rented out inflatable dummies to be used in the background of crowd scenes in movies. Dan worked as an assistant on many shows, most notably ''The Sarah Silverman Program. He has also worked at a vault where he did color grading. Prior to working at Screen Junkies, Dan worked as as a freelance editor. Dan also made several short films for Channel 101, in which he also appeared as an actor. It was through his work on Channel 101 that Dan met '''Brett Weiner and joined Screen Junkies. Dan also competes on the Movie Trivia Schmoedown and is the former 3 time Schmoedown Singles Champion and current Schmoedown Team Champion (alongside his teammate John Rocha). Personal Life Born on January 4, c.1983, Dan is originally from North Little Rock, Arkansas. Dan is in a long-term relationship with Mara Knopic, who has appeared on the Movie Trivia Schmoedown and Movie Fights. Dan is an only child and describes himself as being very driven to succeed, even from an early age. Dan has been a devoted film fan since childhood. His love of film was sparked when watching E.T. for the first time. Dan is noted for his continuing love of Steven Spielberg's films, especially Jurassic Park and Jaws. He frequently appears on screen wearing shirts printed with Jurassic Park and Jaws iconography. Dan also has a longstanding love for Star Trek: The Next Generation and said the show helped him during his childhood when he was bullied for his geeky interests. Dan attended Florida State University where he majored in Media Production. Dan still regularly wears a Florida State Seminoles cap. Awards * Nominee - Primetime Emmy Award - Outstanding Short Form Variety Series (2019) * Nominee - Primetime Emmy Award - Outstanding Short Form Variety Series (2018) * Nominee - Primetime Emmy Award - Outstanding Short Form Variety Series (2017) * Nominee - Primetime Emmy Award - Outstanding Short Form Variety Series (2016) * Nominee - The Streamy Awards - Best Writing (2017) * Winner - The Streamy Awards - Best Writing (2016) * Nominee - The Streamy Awards - Best Writing (2015) See also * List of Honest Trailers writers * Roth Cornet * Spencer Gilbert * Joe Starr * Jon Bailey * Lon Harris * Hal Rudnick * List of notable people External links * Dan Murrell's Twitter * Dan Murrell's IMDb page * Dan Murrell's Rotten Tomatoes page * Dan Murrell's Channel 101 Wiki page * Dan Murrell's Collider Wiki page * Dan Murrell's Flick Bait Wiki page * Dan Murrell Interview - 1 on 1 with Kristian Harloff - podcast in which Dan talks about his childhood and career Category:People Category:Screen Junkies Category:Youtubers Category:Film critics Category:Comedy writers Category:Writers Category:Producers Category:Honest Trailers Category:Presenters Category:Streamy winners Category:Emmy nominated Category:Flick Bait Category:Movie Fights Category:The Screen Junkies Show Category:Screen Junkies Plus Category:Screen Junkies News Category:Dan Murrell